A brewing confrontation over a new county medical examiner investigator program has been defused.

Local police chiefs and Lenawee County Medical Examiner Dr. Patricia Lamb pledged cooperation Thursday at a meeting with county commissioners. Lamb, the police chiefs, sheriff’s officials and Michigan State Police met Wednesday for the first time in a year to discuss when and how the new investigators will work with officers at death scenes.

“We have to communicate. We have to continue to build this partnership,” said Michael Randolph, chief of the Clinton Police Department. There had been no communication in the past year, he said. The program will not work if police continue to be left out, he said.

“So long as the communication continues like it did yesterday we can work our way through this,” said county commissioner David Stimpson, R-Tecumseh. There will be serious problems, he said, “if it backslides to the way it was the last year.”

The county commission’s criminal justice committee set an April 1 deadline last month for Lamb to hire investigators and launch the long-delayed program.

Lamb told the committee Thursday that three investigators have been hired and the program is on track.

“Some very good people have shown up for these jobs,” Lamb said.

The investigators are to work with Lenawee County sheriff’s deputies this month at death scene investigations before starting work on their own in April. The investigators are to be responsible for the body while police remain in charge of the scene, she said. Their duties will include confirming or pronouncing death, conducting an external examination, collecting property and evidence, and documenting the medical history and medications of the deceased.

“It complements law enforcement,” Lamb said.

The investigators will not be called to murder or crime scenes where police will conduct the full investigation.

Police and medical examiner investigators must become familiar with each other’s roles at the scenes of accidental or natural deaths, Randolph said.

“That is where we need the clarity,” he said.

“We don’t want any mistakes. We want to do what’s best for our citizens,” Randolph said.

Randolph also said he and the other chiefs would like a faster response time than the one hour Lamb said it will take for investigators to arrive at a scene.

A faster response would require investigators located in each quarter of the county, Lamb said.

Lenawee County Administrator Martin Marshall said there is more to consider than the $8,000 to $10,000 annual cost of each investigator. The county has an average of 150 death cases a year, he said. If there are more than three investigators, he said, there may not be enough work for each to sharpen and maintain their skills.

Page 2 of 2 - County commissioner Terry Collins, R-Adrian, asked Lamb to make the response time as short as possible. While a local police department has an officer posted at a death scene, he said, there may not be another officer available in that area for law enforcement.